http://www.redstate.com/rs_insider/2013/09/22/how-john-boehner-and-mitch-mcconnell-are-funding-obamacare/How John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are Funding Obamacare
By: RedState Insider (Diary) | September 22nd, 2013 at 08:48 PM
Don’t be fooled by this political theater going on in Washington, DC. The fix is in and both sides are trying to fund ObamaCare while saving face.
The whole of House Republican Leadership thinks you are stupid. They have passed a bill that they know will be changed by Harry Reid before it goes back to the House in a few days. The smoking gun will happen when Boehner allows a Senate passed government funding measure to come up in the House minus the provision defunding ObamaCare. You wait and see.
Also, know that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is in on this too. He is going to stand with Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) to save his Senate seat, but he knows that he has the power to stop this scheme.
Here is how both Republican and Democrats in leadership are trying to fool you. The House passed a Continuing Resolution, a measure to fund the government for two and one half months, with two things attached. A measure to defund ObamaCare and another to reorder the debt payment priorities of the United States government to allow the federal government to operate if the debt limit forbids anymore federal borrowing. These amendments were grouped in a way making it very easy for the Senate to delete this provision. And that was by design.
After the House passed the resolution, they had a big fake rally to make believe they were happy that they were funding the government while defunding ObamaCare. Yet Republicans in the House think we are stupid. Representatives like Peter King (R-NY) and Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) either went on TV or yelled at Tea Party minded constituents to tell them why the House could not pass a budget bill that defunds ObamaCare, yet they did it. These moderates only supported the House effort because they knew it was without teeth and an effort to make believe they are fighting ObamaCare.
The only reason why squishes in the House agreed to send a defund ObamaCare measure to the Senate is because they know the fix is in and the defunding of ObamaCare will never happen. Now I am not saying that these squishy members don’t want to repeal ObamaCare — they do — they are merely unwilling to put up any sort of a fight to repeal it.The bottom line is that Speaker of the House John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Whip Kevin McCarthy all know that the only way they could convince the House to pass a CR that defunds ObamaCare is if this was merely a messaging bill that would be changed by the Senate.
We now have circumstantial evidence that the House Republican Leadership conspired with Senate Democratic Leadership to set up the theater to save ObamaCare while preserving House Republicans reputation for fighting ObamaCare. Why else would the media be openly talking about the complicated Senate procedure that is expected to be used to railroad this bill through the Senate.
The Senate is about to embark on a debate on the CR. Here is how it is going to work. The Senate Republican Leader will move to proceed to a CR that kills ObamaCare. Senate Republican Leadership will urge members to vote to proceed and start debate and they will say “this is what you wanted’ — a CR that defunds ObamaCare. Yet all Senate Democrats are planning to vote for it.
The fix is in.Once the Senate commences consideration of the House passed CR, then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will abuse his power as Majority Leader and block all amendments to the bill with the exception of his amendments. His amendment will be to strike the provision that defunds ObamaCare meaning that Reid will offer an Amendment to restore funding for ObamaCare.
Reid will be filling the amendment tree, a hyper technical parliamentary tactic that allows the leader to block all amendments to legislation. The Senate is known as a body with extended debate and unlimited amendments. Reid will both block all amendments then he will file a cloture petition to shut down debate immediately upon offering the amendment.What will Republican Leaders to in the Senate to fight this abuse of power? Nothing.After this happens, because of the complicated procedure, Reid will need 6 Republicans to vote to shut down debate on the bill to get a vote on the Reid amendment. Now some Republicans will try to fool Tea Party minded voters and they will argue that the vote to shut down debate is a vote to support a final vote on defunding ObamaCare.
They will be lying.
If 6 Republican Senators squish and vote for cloture on the bill, then a vote will happen on Reid’s motion to strike later in the process.We all know it takes 60 votes to do anything in the Senate. Remember the Manchin-Toomey gun control amendment to the Reid gun control bill? The reason the bill failed is because liberals could not cobble together 60 votes to get Manchin-Toomey across the finish line. Every amendment and bill need 60 votes to pass, yet Reid has figured out a way to set up a vote that only needs 51 votes.
If Senators vote for cloture on this funding bill, they are voting with all the Democrats to fund ObamaCare.The American people are not stupid and they are not going to believe that Republicans voting to shut off debate somehow want to defund Obamacare. If that were true why are all Democrats voting to shut off debate with a handful of Republicans?
Because this is a rhetorical trick to protect Republicans who will vote with Harry Reid.Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) have been fighting to defund ObamaCare. They have a plan. Fight Reid’s motion to strike the provision to defund ObamaCare and force 60 Senators to shut down debate on that proposition. Republicans win that fight then Reid has a take it or leave it proposition with the House Continuing Resolution that defunds ObamaCare.The problem is that Cruz and Lee are being sabotaged by his own leadership. The House and Senate Republican leadership are to fearful of being blamed for a government shut down to fight this issue. They are running the white flag of surrender up the flag pole before a shot has even been fired.Squishy House Republicans and House Leadership want to embarrass Cruz and Lee when they fail to get the defunding of ObamaCare across the finish line. Boehner set our guys up for failure — that is a fact.
Reid has all but told the world exactly what he is going to do and Republicans are rolling over in the Senate already.If Republicans don’t blink and block cloture on everything until Senate Majority Leader Reid promises that the rules will be followed and Reid will need 60 votes to shut down debate on his amendment to fully fund ObamaCare, our guys can win this.
If squishy Senate Republicans make arguments that they are voting to defund ObamaCare when they are voting with Democrats to help Reid defund ObamaCare, we will lose.
Tea Party minded voter are not stupid. The American people will not be fooled. Any Senate Republican who votes to shut off debate on this Continuing Resolution is helping Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to fund ObamaCare.Any Republican who is helping Reid, even if they vote right, are guilty of political treason. They need to be repealed and replaced.
